Puncturing

[Puncturing]

CW9176I
MR 32.1.2
I am setting up in the cloud.

Where is the Preamble Puncturing configuration item?
Is it always enabled?

[Blue_Bird]

The Preamble Puncturing configuration item is located within the RF profile settings for the 5 GHz and 6 GHz radio bands. It is not enabled by default. To configure it, you'll need to access the RF profile settings for the relevant radio bands and enable the Preamble Puncturing option.

Please check this link:

https://documentation.meraki.com/MR/MR_Installation_Guides/CW9176I_Installation_Guide

Thanks

[Puncturing]

Thank you for your reply.

I checked again.
RFProfile does not have Preamble Puncturing.

It cannot be configured from the cloud (Meraki).

[rwiesmann]

Well it is the setting for 802.11be

[Blue_Bird]

To enable Preamble Puncturing, navigate to Configuration > Tags & Profiles > RF/Radio > edit the RF Profile of the 5 GHz and 6 GHz bands and enable Preamble Puncturing under the 802.11be tab.

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/wireless/access_point/technical-reference/cw9176-dg.html

Thanks

[aleabrahao · Accepted solution]

It's for a Catalyst 9800, not a Meraki cloud.

[aleabrahao]

Preamble puncturing is allowed only in channel widths greater than 80 MHz. It’s not supported for 40 MHz channel width.

https://documentation.meraki.com/MR/Wi-Fi_Basics_and_Best_Practices/Wi-Fi_7_%28802.11be%29_Technical_Guide#Preamble_Puncturing

[joey.debra]

The real question is... do you have any channels that are interfered with to actually require the puncturing.
I have found that on the internet there is a common misconception that preamble puncturing is some kind of speed boosting tool.... it is not. It is merely used to have the ability to use 80 or 160 MHz channels even if one channel in there is experiencing interference. Most office WiFi scenario's don't suffer from this.

[Philip D'Ath]

Thank you for this @joey.debra . I have been meaning to ask this question for a while.

If I understand correctly, with the 6GHz band and Wi-Fi 7, if you can do puncturing, you should always use 160MHz-wide channels?

Is puncturing a "mandatory" feature for clients?

ps. In my country, we only have 500Mhz available in the 6Ghz band, so using 160MHz wide channels is like the 3 non-overlapping channels in the 2.4Ghz spectrum. Oh the memories.

[joey.debra]

I'm in the EU so we also only have access to LPI and 500 MHz.
Designs in 6 GHz should be limited to 40 or 80 MHz.

But in some cases you could have a bad channel.
Without puncturing you would lose the entire block of 80 MHz for use in your environment.

If your client is WiFi 7 validated then it must support it.
So I guess this will be a problem if you have WiFi 6E clients in the same environment. In that case you will have to lose that entire block.

[Puncturing]

Thank you for your cooperation.

I understand that it cannot be configured if Catalyst 9800 is not used.